The text refers to John’s reaction seeing Jesus, “I fell to his feet as dead” (17). It must have been an awesome and overwhelming vision.
But, Jesus quickly assured Him, identifying Himself in this first vision, not as a foe, but as God the Son. The eternal being who had directed this, and subsequent visions, for John to record through the written word. The visions had reference to the past, present and future and were designed to give Christians faith and confidence despite their present trials.
Christ also began to explain what it was that John was seeing. The seven stars were the seven angels (or messengers) for the seven churches of Asia, to which Christ wrote letters in the next two chapters. The context makes it difficult to know whether these angels were divine or men associated with those churches. The seven lampstands were the churches themselves, the number seven indicating a full representation of such congregations.
